Kevin Seitzer may not have a future as a soothsayer, but he’s confident he can help the Blue Jays experience a better future.

The former big-league third baseman, introduced as the Jays’ new hitting coach Thursday, joined many others in jumping on the Toronto bandwagon after last year’s big off-season moves. Of course, we all know how that all turned out.

“I’ll be honest, I thought that team was going to pretty much walk away with it,” Seitzer said on a conference call after his appointment was made official. “But because of injuries and whatnot, it was a rough year. I think the potential is there to meet expectations of this season (in the) next year.

“There’s definitely an expectation to win the division and go to the post-season. If anybody is thinking short of that, they probably need to make an adjustment mentally — with all due respect.”

The Jays gig is Seitzer’s third shot as a major-league hitting coach after half a year with the Arizona Diamondbacks and three seasons with the Kansas City Royals (2010-2012), where he spent some time with current Jays manager and ex-Royals bench coach John Gibbons. This time around, he replaces Chad Mottola.

“I’ve got the ultimate respect for (Gibbons),” said Seitzer, who was out of the bigs last year, working at his indoor baseball academy in Kansas City. “I felt like I had to win him over, I had to prove to him what I was doing and what I was teaching (worked).”

A two-time all star as a player, Seitzer certainly made the most of what he called his “limited” abilities. He fit the definition of scrappy player.

With the Jays having many big-swinging pull hitters like Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, Seitzer said he’s not about to ask players to totally scrap their approach. Rather, he just wants to help add some “tools to the toolbox,” so players have more weapons at their disposal.

“My philosophy in a nutshell is to stay in the middle of the field, stay gap to gap and make tweaks along the way with mechanics,” Seitzer said.

Blue Jays hire ex-all star Seitzer as hitting coach

Kevin Seitzer may not have a future as a soothsayer, but he’s confident he can help the Blue Jays experience a better future.

The former big-league third baseman, introduced as the Jays’ new hitting coach Thursday, joined many others in jumping on the Toronto bandwagon after last year’s big off-season moves. Of course, we all know how that all turned out.

“I’ll be honest, I thought that team was going to pretty much walk away with it,” Seitzer said on a conference call after his appointment was made official. “But because of injuries and whatnot, it was a rough year. I think the potential is there to meet expectations of this season (in the) next year.

“There’s definitely an expectation to win the division and go to the post-season. If anybody is thinking short of that, they probably need to make an adjustment mentally — with all due respect.”

The Jays gig is Seitzer’s third shot as a major-league hitting coach after half a year with the Arizona Diamondbacks